There’s quite a lot of revisionist writing on him. I’d suggest you read his body of work beyond the typical recommendations to form your own opinion.
What most experts do agree is that his sister’s edits of Will to Power are quite obvious and her role in portraying him as an anti-semite is ludicrously overstated, in no small part by post-war fascists trying to lure more people into reading him. It does not stop him from being an anti-semite and anti-democratic thinker on his own.
Nietzsche isn’t the sort of philosopher that should be discarded for all of his -isms, just keep in mind that he’s also probably the most lied about philosopher in history since Jesus. Or Marx, come to think, often by the same liars for the same reasons.
I have read several of his works, and they never struck me as inherently political—more like a commentary on observable sociological structures. I may just not be clever enough to absorb everything, but I had originally interpreted his work as observational rather than prescriptive.
“Liberal institutions straightaway cease being liberal the moment they are soundly established: once this is attained; no more grievous and more thorough enemies of freedom exist than liberal institutions”
A common excerpt from the apolitical gem Twilight of the Idols, when he’s not saying Socrates was wrong because he was from the “lower orders”
Nietzsche of course lived through the change of the Prussian Kingdom becoming the German Empire. Lmao.
Fair enough. Like I said, I’m not a Nietzsche expert, I just had never interpreted his writings in a primarily political context, and I had read a decent amount of commentary from people who did claim to be experts that refuted the idea of him having fascist or anti-Semitic leanings.
There’s quite a lot of revisionist writing on him. I’d suggest you read his body of work beyond the typical recommendations to form your own opinion.
What most experts do agree is that his sister’s edits of Will to Power are quite obvious and her role in portraying him as an anti-semite is ludicrously overstated, in no small part by post-war fascists trying to lure more people into reading him. It does not stop him from being an anti-semite and anti-democratic thinker on his own.
Nietzsche isn’t the sort of philosopher that should be discarded for all of his -isms, just keep in mind that he’s also probably the most lied about philosopher in history since Jesus. Or Marx, come to think, often by the same liars for the same reasons.
I have read several of his works, and they never struck me as inherently political—more like a commentary on observable sociological structures. I may just not be clever enough to absorb everything, but I had originally interpreted his work as observational rather than prescriptive.
“Liberal institutions straightaway cease being liberal the moment they are soundly established: once this is attained; no more grievous and more thorough enemies of freedom exist than liberal institutions”
A common excerpt from the apolitical gem Twilight of the Idols, when he’s not saying Socrates was wrong because he was from the “lower orders”
Nietzsche of course lived through the change of the Prussian Kingdom becoming the German Empire. Lmao.
How is this different than the criticism that leftists on Lemmy espouse against modern liberalism?
They don’t claim to be apolitical, for one, but neither did Nietzsche.
Just people lying about him, for some reason.
Fair enough. Like I said, I’m not a Nietzsche expert, I just had never interpreted his writings in a primarily political context, and I had read a decent amount of commentary from people who did claim to be experts that refuted the idea of him having fascist or anti-Semitic leanings.